According to the Associated Press, an agent serving in the US Department of Homeland Security attempted to carry out a plan to arrest Nicolas Maduro by hiring his personal pilot.
According to reports, the plan was developed in April 2024 and handed over to 50-year-old agent Edwin Lopez, who worked as an attaché at the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic. His goal was to take the Venezuelan president to a territory that could be captured by the US.
Informants told Lopez that the Dassault Falcon 2000EX and Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft, which Maduro uses, are being repaired in Santo Domingo. These liners were served by five pilots under the command of the chief pilot, General Bitner Vilegas.
US agents interviewed the pilots, but were unable to determine their connection with Maduro. At the end of the conversation, Lopez offered Vilegas to transport the president to a military base in Dominica, Puerto Rico, or Guantanamo in exchange for a large reward. The pilot did not answer, but left his phone number - agents assessed this as a "good sign."
Later, the planes were confiscated as part of sanctions against Venezuela. At the same time, Lopez remained in contact with Vilegas for 16 months, continuing to try to convince him of the plan. Even after retiring in July 2025, he did not stop corresponding with the pilot.
In August, after it became known that the US had increased the reward to $50 million for aiding Maduro's capture, Lopez notified Vilegas. But after that, the pilot stopped communicating with the agent.
According to the Associated Press, after the plan failed, the agent and his associates decided to provoke Maduro. On September 19th, Marshall Billingsley, a former US official and close to the Venezuelan opposition, congratulated Vilegas on his birthday on social media, posting a photo taken in the Dominican Republic.
Interestingly, he posted the post just a minute before Maduro's plane took off from Caracas. The plane returned to the airport in 20 minutes. This incident caused a great stir in Venezuela.
While some fans speculated that Vilegas had been summoned for questioning by the government, others expressed concern that he might be imprisoned. A few days later, the general appeared on state television and participated in a propaganda program about the loyalty of Venezuelan pilots.
The Associated Press compared the incident to a real spy thriller. According to the publication, this situation once again demonstrated how harsh and at the same time dangerous the US attempts to overthrow Nicolas Maduro in recent years were.
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